Determinants of diarrheal disease among under five Children in Robe Hospital, Bale Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia: Case-control study

Abstract

Background: In African countries including Ethiopia, each child on average
hurts from five episodes of diarrhea per year. Therefore, this paper focuses
on determinants of diarrheal diseases among under five children in Robe
Hospital, South East Ethiopia from May-August, 2018.
Methods: Health Facility based unmatched case-control study design was
conducted in Robe Hospital. Interviewer administered questionnaire was
used to collect data. Epi-Info version 7 and SPSS version 20 were used for
data entry and analysis respectively. The proportion of case and control was
assumed to 1:2 and by using the Epi Info Version 7 software the sample size
was 594 (198 cases and 396 controls). Factors associated with diarrheal
disease were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. In
bivariate logistic regression, p-value of <= 0.25 was considered for enrolling
variables to multiple logistic regression. Adjusted odds ratios with 95%
confidence interval was calculated using a logistic regression model to
controlled confounding effect and to determined predictors of the outcome.
P-value < 0.05 was considered as cutoff point for statistically significance
variables. Results: Multivariate logistic regression showed that presence of improved
latrine [AOR: 0.35 95% CI: (0.21, 0.58)], mother/caretaker hand washing at
critical time [AOR: 0.50 95% CI: (0.26, 0.95)], maternal history of diarrhea
[AOR: 3.02 95% CI: (1.30, 7.02)] and age of child being 12-23 months
[AOR: 4.37 (2.22, 8.62)] were found to be significant factors for under five
Conclusions: The results of the study showed that factors; namely age of
children, presence of improved latrine, mother history of diarrhea in the past
two weeks and hand washing at critical time were significantly associated
with diarrhea among children less than five years of age. Overall, educating
mothers focusing on sustained behavioral changes in the use of improved
latrine and hand washing at critical time is an important intervention for the
prevention and control of diarrhea among children.